Need some EBay selling advice?

[AirborneAFOL]

I get those about 1/100 sales. Item will be "awaiting payment" for 3-5 days, until the check clears, at which point you'll get another notice and the item will drop into your "awaiting shipment" queue.

Nothing to worry about.

[Lego Templar]

Thanks guys. I knew it was another payment method however I've received one very similar (only reason I caught it was because of a few spelling errors) anyway I'll keep an eye on it!

I'm glad I was able to get 31 for it and also shocked a got one for 37 as well. Easy $ those super girl starter packs!!!

[AirborneAFOL]

eCheck is a valid form of payment - it just takes a while to clear. Don't ship anything until it clears and payment is officially recorded as received.

I hereby renounce your "Phil B" name, and declare you reborn as "Phil Bot". Its just super-human how you're able to jump in and provide answers as quick as you do

[Phil B]

2 minutes ago, AirborneAFOL said:

I hereby renounce your "Phil B" name, and declare you reborn as "Phil Bot". Its just super-human how you're able to jump in and provide answers as quick as you do

[ISO8T0]

Love that gif. And love the hang loose at the end.

[ravenb99]

39 minutes ago, Lego Templar said:

So I'm still newer to selling stuff on eBay. I've had an account for 10 years but rarely sold stuff. I've sold about 70 things in the last 2 weeks and this is the first time I'm getting this (see picture below) now the last time I was sent this it was a scam to ship something from a Craigslist sale. Is this something to be concerned about? Let it clear? Definitely a scam?

The person who sent it has been on eBay over 5 years and has 22 feedback. No feedback in over a year. Figured I'd ask you guys for input. Thanks!!

If you get a payment with that many scribbles I would be concerned...

[KShine]

34 minutes ago, Lego Templar said:

So I'm still newer to selling stuff on eBay. I've had an account for 10 years but rarely sold stuff. I've sold about 70 things in the last 2 weeks and this is the first time I'm getting this (see picture below) now the last time I was sent this it was a scam to ship something from a Craigslist sale. Is this something to be concerned about? Let it clear? Definitely a scam?

The person who sent it has been on eBay over 5 years and has 22 feedback. No feedback in over a year. Figured I'd ask you guys for input. Thanks!!

Yes, it is like waiting for a check to clear. The buyer didn't have funds in their account to pay, and didn't use a credit card. It is being deducted from their bank.

I have found that it is fairly common for an echeck user not to realize that there will be a delay (or that they are even using an echeck) - I usually contact them, just to explain the delay (and the reason).

[Lego Templar]

If you get a payment with that many scribbles I would be concerned...

So a private email from him with this picture isn't legit?!?

[ravenb99]

PayPal of late likes to change users default back to e-check too.  Had a few regulars it has done it to over the past year.  There is also a fun glitch going around where the customer purchases the item but eBay gives an error message but the PayPal payment goes through.  It keeps the item active on eBay and shows no record of the sale but the PayPal payment does reference the item number.  So if you ever get a customer swearing they paid you should check instead of thinking they are scamming.  It's happened twice in the last 6 months.  

[Voltron]

It's surprising that the persons address isn't confirmed. Almost all addresses in UK are confirmed and whenever I get someone who is in uk and unconfirmed address + echeck I always check there feedback to make sure it's not a scam.

Not sure how easy / common it is to get confirmed address in USA.

Also cover up your eBay item number in future, as people can use that to track back to your eBay username.

[GhostDad]

On ‎12‎/‎21‎/‎2016 at 10:14 PM, Phil B said:

eCheck is a valid form of payment - it just takes a while to clear. Don't ship anything until it clears and payment is officially recorded as received.

Yep.  Although I've made exceptions for smaller orders around Christmas (so the buyer gets the item by the 25th), or if the buyer has bought from me before or has heaps of feedback.  Bounced checks cost the buyer money, so most people don't make a habit of it.  I've never had an eCheck fail to clear.  The risk is very small, especially with inexpensive items (minifigures, polybags, etc.).  Your buyer will love you if you ship immediately and get their kid's present to them in time for Christmas or a birthday.  No one has your back if you ship before clearing and the eCheck bounces, but it's a judgment call for you to make.

[AirborneAFOL]

Question on Returns:

1. Buyer requests a return (opens a case).
2. You respond within the case, offering a partial refund.
3. Buyer fails to take any further action.

What happens next? Does the ticket close out once the return timeframe has expired (no return/refund ultimately processed)? Does it automatically go to dispute resolution?

I've got a pair of instances the buyer is crying SNAD on, but I'm on 100% firm footing, so offered them a $5-10 partial refund just as a gesture of goodwill (yes, buying them off to go away). But neither has responded for over a week now. Not sure what happens if radio silence continues...

[Sandwraith]

21 minutes ago, AirborneAFOL said:

I've got a pair of instances the buyer is crying SNAD on, but I'm on 100% firm footing, so offered them a $5-10 partial refund just as a gesture of goodwill (yes, buying them off to go away). But neither has responded for over a week now. Not sure what happens if radio silence continues...

Been a while since I've had an issue like this, but i believe the ball is in their court now that you've given a partial refund, so now they must make a response/take further action otherwise the case closes in your favour. Again been a while, so don't quote me on any of this, but i seem to recall this being how one of mine ended.

[ravenb99]

37 minutes ago, AirborneAFOL said:

Question on Returns:

1. Buyer requests a return (opens a case).
2. You respond within the case, offering a partial refund.
3. Buyer fails to take any further action.

What happens next? Does the ticket close out once the return timeframe has expired (no return/refund ultimately processed)? Does it automatically go to dispute resolution?

I've got a pair of instances the buyer is crying SNAD on, but I'm on 100% firm footing, so offered them a $5-10 partial refund just as a gesture of goodwill (yes, buying them off to go away). But neither has responded for over a week now. Not sure what happens if radio silence continues...

Most like that will not respond and run out which will auto close after the time limit.  If they escalate though, eBay will approve the return and you will get a defect as they were involved.  I just always accept the return as most usually do just time out and not return.  When the only score that can hurt you under the new system is a defect I just don't risk it.  

[Lego Templar]

Quick question. I typically drop off my packages at Office Depot (one in my plaza) they take USPS/Fedex. I dropped stuff off Tuesday afternoon (like 3-4 things) 3 of the 4 tracking labels shows "sorting blah blah" one still shows marked as shipped by seller with no updated tracking info. Normally within 24 hours I see updated status. Just curious if this is normal or is it possible the package "walked" from their bin and wasn't picked up.

I've dropped off roughly 100 packages in the last 2 months there with no issues and not sure if this is something to call USPS about.

[ravenb99]

4 minutes ago, Lego Templar said:

Quick question. I typically drop off my packages at Office Depot (one in my plaza) they take USPS/Fedex. I dropped stuff off Tuesday afternoon (like 3-4 things) 3 of the 4 tracking labels shows "sorting blah blah" one still shows marked as shipped by seller with no updated tracking info. Normally within 24 hours I see updated status. Just curious if this is normal or is it possible the package "walked" from their bin and wasn't picked up.

I've dropped off roughly 100 packages in the last 2 months there with no issues and not sure if this is something to call USPS about.

if it has the picked up scan wouldn't worry about it.  If it doesn't have that then it was not scanned.  Example below.

 

PROCESSED THROUGH USPS FACILITY

Nov-07-16, 21:53 PM

PICKED UP

Nov-07-16, 18:01 PM

 

[Lego Templar]

So it's been like 4 days and still shows

Shows the same for the USPS site. Has anyone run into this issue? I drop off all my packages at Office Depot (they are a drop point for FedEx/USPS) dropped 5 things off that day and 2 of the 5 things are showing the above picture...

Who to point the finger to? I'm 99.99% sure it's USPS but as far as they are concerned the item wasn't scanned in. Weren't super expensive sets but nevertheless how do I go about this? Call USPS? If they don't show up contact eBay? Do I need to refund or does PayPal take care of it?

I let the 2 customers know that I dropped their stuff off Monday night and not sure what happened after that and that I would research it and get back to them.

[Phil B]

18 minutes ago, Lego Templar said:

So it's been like 4 days and still shows

Shows the same for the USPS site. Has anyone run into this issue? I drop off all my packages at Office Depot (they are a drop point for FedEx/USPS) dropped 5 things off that day and 2 of the 5 things are showing the above picture...

Who to point the finger to? I'm 99.99% sure it's USPS but as far as they are concerned the item wasn't scanned in. Weren't super expensive sets but nevertheless how do I go about this? Call USPS? If they don't show up contact eBay? Do I need to refund or does PayPal take care of it?

I let the 2 customers know that I dropped their stuff off Monday night and not sure what happened after that and that I would research it and get back to them.

I have seen something like this happen once or twice in the past. Item would show up as "Label created, waiting for shipment" on the USPS site. What happened in my case is that suddenly the tracking would jump to "Delivered" once the item was delivered and then show the past steps (or at least some of them).

[Lego Templar]

I found the packages...at my front door... they sent them back because it weights 1.02 and I just put the max what eBay allows. 1.0 lol that's never happen before...

[donbee]

I found the packages...at my front door... they sent them back because it weights 1.02 and I just put the max what eBay allows. 1.0 lol that's never happen before...

Trim those flaps!

[Zelgazra]

Ok, I'm going to preface this with the statement that "maybe this belongs in the ethics thread", as some might see it as shady. On the other hand, I'm sure a lot of you participate in what I'm about to describe since it nets a bigger margin. It could be viewed as unethical by some, but not to the same degree as mass returns etc. So here goes: 

The other week I had a guy asking me about several old SW sets I had listed. He asked me if i could provide a deal if he bought all at once... I said sure and asked if there were any other sets he was looking for... I had several that were not yet listed on ebay. He gave me his list and it included about 5 extra sets (that had never been listed on ebay once, they never had a take in the cut of those sales). Through some messages back and forth, without specifically discussing a private sale, I sent him my phone number so we could get a conversation rolling outside ebay. We concluded a deal and I pulled the 4 listings, and did a private sale with the guy for 9 sets total. A couple of days later I got a warning email from ebay saying about the Selling Outside Ebay policies. It was simply a warning shot being fired, saying "hey look at our policies, maybe you didn't know". 

Fast forward to yesterday. When he contacted me about shipping costs to the UK there were only 8 hours left on my listing... by the time he replied to my answer the listing had expired, but in his reply the guy outright asks me in ebay messages if I wanted to do a private sale outside ebay to save me on seller fees. This is coming from a high feedback established user, so he knows the rules and ropes I'm pretty sure. Unlike the previous scenario, I don't have to pull any listings.... and I can safely relist the item since I have multiples... so ebay shouldn't have any obvious red flags raised, except for anything going on in messages discussion....

I absolutely want to do the private sale. Saving 10% means I get more in pocket, and I can offer a deeper discounted OBO than I could have on ebay. Given a situation that both the buyer and seller mutually agree to waiving ebay's protection system, the advice I'm looking for is some suggestions to the following question: "What is the safest (re: not getting caught by ebay) method for initiating a private communication stream? Are they going to flag a link to something like BrickClassifieds?? I tried to sneakily include the information required to send me an email, but it wasn't incredibly obvious so maybe it won't click for him... 10 hours later and I haven't heard back yet. 

 

Any words of wisdom from the longer term players? 

[Voltron]

12 minutes ago, Zelgazra said:

Ok, I'm going to preface this with the statement that "maybe this belongs in the ethics thread", as some might see it as shady. On the other hand, I'm sure a lot of you participate in what I'm about to describe since it nets a bigger margin. It could be viewed as unethical by some, but not to the same degree as mass returns etc. So here goes: 

The other week I had a guy asking me about several old SW sets I had listed. He asked me if i could provide a deal if he bought all at once... I said sure and asked if there were any other sets he was looking for... I had several that were not yet listed on ebay. He gave me his list and it included about 5 extra sets (that had never been listed on ebay once, they never had a take in the cut of those sales). Through some messages back and forth, without specifically discussing a private sale, I sent him my phone number so we could get a conversation rolling outside ebay. We concluded a deal and I pulled the 4 listings, and did a private sale with the guy for 9 sets total. A couple of days later I got a warning email from ebay saying about the Selling Outside Ebay policies. It was simply a warning shot being fired, saying "hey look at our policies, maybe you didn't know". 

Fast forward to yesterday. When he contacted me about shipping costs to the UK there were only 8 hours left on my listing... by the time he replied to my answer the listing had expired, but in his reply the guy outright asks me in ebay messages if I wanted to do a private sale outside ebay to save me on seller fees. This is coming from a high feedback established user, so he knows the rules and ropes I'm pretty sure. Unlike the previous scenario, I don't have to pull any listings.... and I can safely relist the item since I have multiples... so ebay shouldn't have any obvious red flags raised, except for anything going on in messages discussion....

I absolutely want to do the private sale. Saving 10% means I get more in pocket, and I can offer a deeper discounted OBO than I could have on ebay. Given a situation that both the buyer and seller mutually agree to waiving ebay's protection system, the advice I'm looking for is some suggestions to the following question: "What is the safest (re: not getting caught by ebay) method for initiating a private communication stream? Are they going to flag a link to something like BrickClassifieds?? I tried to sneakily include the information required to send me an email, but it wasn't incredibly obvious so maybe it won't click for him... 10 hours later and I haven't heard back yet. 

 

Any words of wisdom from the longer term players? 

Nowadays ebay automatically stop any messages you try and send with an email address. Some people try writing like my dot email at yahoo dot com, but ebay is also catching up on this. 

Some individuals try attaching a picture with email / phone number. Some put a link to there external website / youtube account.

To be honest, I used to do alot of private sales but have stopped now as there has been some cases where sellers have been penalised for going through the private sales route. It was rare to get caught previously but now ebay are clamping down on this as they want their share (which is fair). It's not worth getting your account restricted for the sake of saving the 10% fvf IMO.

All it takes is one person to report your listing and ebay is on your case.

[Bold-Arrow]

Amazon and eBay charge you a referral fee for hooking you up with an interested buyer or seller , same way a real estate agent does .

If everyone pursue a private sale, then those platform can't exist so they need to protect their existence with some severe penalties as deterants . Otherwise they will be another CL 

[edgecrusher]

So if it's somebody local, and they are asking about an item I also have listed on eBay, I'll usually say something like "There is the same item listed on Craigslist in (my city), you should check that out". I'm not sure I'd do it on a non-local transaction, nor would I offer it proactively. 

[Cozei]

Ok, I'm going to preface this with the statement that "maybe this belongs in the ethics thread", as some might see it as shady. On the other hand, I'm sure a lot of you participate in what I'm about to describe since it nets a bigger margin. It could be viewed as unethical by some, but not to the same degree as mass returns etc.

I don't find private sales that grow out of an eBay introduction to be highly unethical. Yes it would not have started without eBay, but take it outside quickly (do the obfuscated email and don't spend a bunch of time chatting in messages).

eBay gets plenty in fees from me as a seller. I don't abuse the listing as an advert with the intent to sell outside. Someone asks if you have more, no biggie.

After selling a couple A-wings to one buyer this fall he asked if I had more. I sold a bunch more directly. I didn't pull a listing, but I also didn't bother going through the eBay listing either.

I'd suggest invoicing him through PayPal and then you've sold goods through PayPal.

Last, I also turn down many outside propositions as even though not the nutty low ballers many seem to forget that a 10% discount outside eBay is a wash for me if I just stayed inside.